Subshrubs tufted, 10-25 cm tall, much branched. Branches creeping, rooting from nodes; bark black-brown; branchlets erect, simple. Petiole short; leaf blade gray-green abaxially, green adaxially, narrowly lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 3-15 × 0.3-3.5 cm, longer than internodes, abaxially midvein prominent, adaxially midvein large, slightly immersed, lateral veins conspicuous, base narrowly cuneate, margin conspicuously revolute, apex acute; ocrea tubular, 2-5 cm, membranous, apex acute, dehiscent, not ciliate. Inflorescence terminal, spicate, lax, 2-6 cm, 7-8 mm in diam.; bracts brown, ovate, membranous, apex acuminate, each 1- or 2-flowered. Pedicels longer than bracts, slender. Perianth purple-red, 5-parted; tepals broadly elliptic, 3-3.5 mm. Stamens 8, included. Styles 3, connate to below middle; stigmas capitate. Achenes included in persistent perianth, brown, dull, ovoid, trigonous, ca. 3 mm.

Rocky fissures on mountain slopes, thickets, forests; 1300-3000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NW India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].